Toy shop opens in West Brighton

Staten Island Advance/Barton Horowitz Karen Barwick, founder of Boomerang Toys, and her mother, RoseMarie Krumrey, chose West Brighton as the home of the company’s third store.WEST BRIGHTON - During a recent visit to an online shop, I experienced the elation of feeling like the proverbial kid in a candy store. What caught my attention, however, had nothing to do with sweets.

The Web site belongs to Boomerang Toys, an award-winning toy retailer in Manhattan, who chose West Brighton as the location for its recently opened third store.

As an over-zealous grandfather of two tykes, I was so impressed by the selection of toys on the Web site, I couldn’t wait to experience the new Boomerang Toys store at 646 Forest Ave. firsthand.

I went there, and I wasn’t disappointed. The selection at Boomerang Toys is geared for children of all ages, with categories and themes ranging from “air, land and sea” to creative, dolls, musical, puzzles and much, much more.

“Basically, we are an educational and developmental-type toy store, and our toys are a lot of fun,” said RoseMarie Krumrey, whose daughter, Karen Barwick, opened her first Boomerang Toys store in Tribeca in early 2002.

The store’s numerous products, including such brands as ALEX, Chicco, LEGO, Brain Quest and Learning Curve (Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway), are chosen based on quality, safety and ability to challenge and entertain growing minds.

And the range of its highly selective offerings hasn’t gone unnoticed – Boomerang Toys won the Nickelodeon Parents’ Pick Award for Best Toy Store in New York City in both 2008 and 2009. Not too shabby when you consider such names as Toys ÃR Us and FAO Schwarz were included among the nominees.

Karen, a West Brighton native, relocated to Manhattan in the early 1990s. At the time she opened her first store, she was seeking a new career following her work as online merchandising-services director for the former Polygram Records company.

The toy store concept found its way to Karen, practically announcing: “Here I am, go for it.”

“At the time, my children were 4 1/2 and 1 and we started getting invited to birthday parties,” Karen said.

This provoked a frequent need for toy purchases. However, living in the Manhattan community of Battery Park City, she discovered there were no toy stores within walking distance.

“Union Square was the closest place,” requiring a round trip of nearly an hour and a half by train, she said.

When it came to choosing a new career, “I wanted to do something that would give me a little more flexibility to be around my kids,” Karen said. The solution: Fill a retailing void by opening a toy store closer to home.

The first Boomerang Toys store was a commercial hit and Karen was inspired in 2007 to open a second location in Manhattan’s financial district.

Concurrent with the growth of her stores, came the success of the retailer’s Web site.

Well-versed in modern technology, RoseMarie suggested that the enterprise have representation on the Internet so customers could order online and arrange to pick up their selections at a Boomerang store, or have the toys shipped to their home.

In addition, the site could create “a worldwide presence for the business,” RoseMarie said.

The opening of the new Boomerang Toys store in her home community of West Brighton was directly influenced by the growing success of the retailer’s online store, RoseMarie said.

“The Web site was launched in November 2003, and I had been running it from my home on Staten Island,” RoseMarie said. “It was more than I could handle from my home as a one-person-show.”

The savvy tech expert said the time seemed right for “a retail space in a community where I knew there was a real need for a real toy store,” RoseMarie said. And her daughter agreed.

“There hasn’t been a toy store in this neighborhood for 15 years,” RoseMarie said, alluding to the closure of Smiling Sunny’s in the mid-1990s.

To experience Boomerang Toys, log onto www.boomerangtoys.com or call the West Brighton store at 718-448-0873.

Barton Horowitz is the Advance senior business writer/columnist. He may be reached by e-mail at horowitz@siadvance.com.